November/December 2004, Volume 60, No. 6, pp. 58-66
Taking biodefense too far
By Susan Wright
The United States is developing a costly bio-umbrella to protect its citizens against biothreats that do not now--and may never--exist.
[SIDEBAR Corporate ties of President Clinton's April 1998 biodefense advisers]
On April 28, President George W. Bush unveiled an unclassified version of a secret presidential directive, "Biodefense for the 21st Century," indicating his administration's plans for defending Americans from terrorists intent on spreading dreaded diseases. The document, while light on detail, is heavy on goals: The country's air, water, and food will be closely monitored, as will its public health; huge quantities of vaccines and therapies will be stockpiled to be used in the event of a bioterrorist attack; and defenses against futuristic genetically modified pathogens will be developed. Moreover, the deadly organisms that are needed for research and development and the people who work with them will be tightly controlled in Andromeda Strain-type laboratories.
Bush promises Americans a vast bio-umbrella intended to shield them from deadly bio-aggression in the same way that President Ronald Reagan promised that his Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") would shield them from nuclear missiles. A key component is even known as "BioShield." This is the vision of "biosecurity" that has seized Washington's imagination since 9/11. http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2004/nd04/nd04wright.html